Paycode

Biometric solution to 197,045 farmers in Zambia

Case Study

Group

In a partnership realized in 30 district with Paycode and Ingenico Group, the Zambian government has been able to successfully bring banking and substantial funding to farmers in remote areas, resulting in establishing a financial ecosystem.

Challenge / A new agricultural strategy to support a central sector

In rural Zambia, citizens are significantly poorer than the rest of the country, with a staggering poverty rate of 77% for the past decade. The Ministry of Agriculture has made continuous efforts to reduce this gap. The issue presents high stakes as the agricultural sector in Zambia is essential to the country as many other sector depend on it, leading the government to invest in agricultural growth by devoting 10% of the total GDP towards the sector: an increase from the advised 6%.

The project’s purpose would be to support farmers in rural Zambia with agricultural subsidies. The main challenge arose with concern to the distribution the funds, due to the lack of banking and financial structures in Zambia’s remote areas. There was also a need to prevent fraud and ensure security when distributing the subsidy.

SOLUTION / Biometric smart terminals make on-boarding simple

For identification purposes and to prevent duplicate registrations, farmers present a program agent their National Registration Card. At the on-boarding station, their fingerprints are captured and associated to their ID and agricultural data. Then, they are provided with a FISP electronic wallet loaded with the value of their contribution in addition to the subsidy.

Biometric solution facilitates secure transactions

Being the only supplier of an all-in-one, secure biometric POS terminal, Ingenico IWL devices were chosen to scan farmers’ fingerprints and onboard new users. To spend their grant, farmers use their fingerprint for authentication during the transaction, which takes place via a secure closed loop system.

We’re proud to have served the Ministry of Agriculture by providing world-class technology that works in the remotest of environments. We look forward to expanding our solution so every Zambian can have their money at their fingertips, said Gabe Ruhan, Director of Paycode Zambia.

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